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Iraq Reopens International Airport After 10 years of Shutout
A big ceremony was held on Thursday morning to mark the reopening of the Saddam International Airport in the western suburb of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
This has been regarded as a fresh and bold move for Iraq to counter the United Nations embargo that was imposed on Iraq in 1990 following its invasion of Kuwait. The airport has been out of service since the embargo started.
According to the UN embargo, any flight to Iraq must get prior permission from the UN Sanctions Committee, which has been dominated by the US and its allies.
Iraqi Minister of Transport and Communications Ahmad Murtadha Ahmad Khalil attended the ceremony, which began at 11:10 a.m. local time(0710 GMT) and lasted for about an hour.
Mamoun Al-Nassry, general director of the Iraqi Civil Aviation, told Xinhua that a flight "from a friendly country" will arrive at the airport as early as next week.
If this comes true, it will be another plane in defiance of the the UN embargo. On April 3, a European airplane landed at Baghdad without prior permission from the UN.
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